A touch of Michigan weather for Gerald R. Ford island landing

Newport News Shipbuilding workers lowered the 555-ton island of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford onto its flight deck Saturday, completing a construction milestone for the ship that's on pace to be christened later this year.

On a cold, crisp morning, shipyard crane operators lowered into place the 72-foot-tall structure, shaking off a tiny bit of Friday's snowfall in the process.

At a ceremony marking the event, the Ford's prospective commanding officer, Capt. John Meier said that with the retirement from active service of the USS Enterprise, sailors on the Navy's 10-carrier fleet are faced with longer deployments.

Meier said that as a result the Navy can't wait to get its hands on the Ford – the first in a new class of carriers that is replacing the Nimitz class.

And Meier also highlighted the ship's new technologies, which will include electromagnetic catapults, a new nuclear plant and an island with a more-capable dual-band radar system.

"Everything but the skin of the ship is new and different," he said.

That has meant new challenges for the shipbuilders who've worked to build, piece together and paint the carrier.

For workers at the ceremony, the heavy lift of the island represents thousands of man-hours.

As the shipyard's largest crane moved the island into place, Andy Adams, a 29-year-old shipfitter, and Marvin Jones, a 49-year-old welding foreman, described working hand in hand since February 2012 on the unit.

Susan Ford Bales, the ship's sponsor and daughter of its namesake, thanked the carrier's small crew and its shipbuilders, who she called "a national treasure" in a tearful speech.

And she borrowed a famous line from former House Speaker and Democratic leader Tip O'Neill about Ford's presidency.

"God has been good to the American people," she said. "At the time of the Civil War he gave us Abraham Lincoln and at the time of Watergate he gave Gerald Ford – the right man at the right time who was able to heal a nation."

Ford served in the Navy before winning election to a U.S. House seat that included his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. The Republican was picked to replace Spiro Agnew as Richard Nixon's vice president and became president after the Watergate Scandal led to Nixon's impeachment.

His full pardon of Nixon, was controversial. Ford would later write in his autobiography that he granted it to move the country forward and spare it a traumatic criminal trial of a former president. It also may have contributed to his losing the 1976 presidential election to Jimmy Carter.

In an interview after the ceremony, Ford Bales told the Daily Press that her father will be remembered for making tough but not always popular decisions, and the sturdy carrier is a fitting tribute.

"It's an amazing, sturdy strong piece of steel, and it just reminds me of my dad and his choice to do what had to be done."

"He did what was best for the country," she said, and not what was in his own self-interest as a politician."

A shipyard tradition

Ford Bales, shipyard president Matt Mulherin, Meier and Rear Adm. Ted Branch, the Navy's commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, all placed commemorative items under the bulkhead of the island moments before it was set down on the flight deck.

Ford Bales' mementos included a coin and five seals representing her father's service in the Navy, Congress and as vice president and president. They were all embedded in a piece of the same sandstone used to build the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

She told the Daily Press the stone is not easy to obtain. It comes from a government-run quarry and the National Park Service needs the material for White House and Capitol repair projects.

"We've only asked for it twice, and I'm not sure they'd give it to us if we asked again," she said.

The commemorative items, once they're put under the island are removed and placed in a box that's typically put in the captain's quarters of the carrier, according to several shipyard workers familiar with the process.